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Four teams will meet in FIFA World Cup soccer semi-finals, and Brazil is definitely one of them, according to analysis by Itau BBA. Okay, so it's an investment bank. But this is Brazil, and in Brazil everyone is a soccer expert.

World Cup soccer begins on June 12 in an opening match between Brazil and Croatia in São Paulo. But the country-wide event won't end until a month later. If Itau's macro soccer analysis is correct, Croatia won't make it to the end, but three other World Cup champions will.

Itau analysts selected three factors they considered to be the most important: team quality, team tradition and fan support. Based on that, they searched for variables that describe these three factors among the 32 countries competing. Then they used econometric models to pick the final four.

Team jersey for the Brazilian national team. FIFA World Cup soccer kicks off in Brazil on June 12 and ends on July 13 in a final match in Rio. Investment bank Itau BBA predicts Brazil will make it to the final four.

Itau BBA collected data from all the FIFA World Cups since 1994. All the main candidates went through the group stage, with England the only exception. According to the model, England should eliminated in games against either Italy or Uruguay in Group D, the so-called “Group of Death”. In the Round of 16, strong names such as Colombia, Mexico and Russia will unlikely make it to the “road to Rio”, where the final match will be held on July 13 at the iconic Maracanã stadium.

The quarterfinals will see Italy and Spain on the pitch in Salvador, Bahia. Italy is a four-time World Cup champ and one of the teams with the strongest tradition in World Cup soccer. However, Spain is the winner of the 2010 World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa, and currently is the No. 1 national team. Plus, Spain crushed Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 final match. This is pretty much the same team. Italy will go home in the quarterfinals.

The Final Four

In the end, Brazil, Spain, Argentina and Germany will meet in the semi-finals, according to Itau BBA's exercise in football futility.

"It will be historic!" writes Ilan Goldfajn, Itau's chief economist and -- duh -- a major soccer fan. There will be 11 World Cup titles going at each other in the semi-finals, plus, as Goldfajn points out, "football rivalries as big as the tournament itself. From here on, we do not dare to make a projection: it shall be up to the will of the football gods."

Before the gods have their say, it will be Brazil x Germany and Spain x Argentina. Brazilians will be rooting for themselves, and the Argentines, which would truly be a beautiful game if those two went at it in the dead of winter in Rio. (Yes, July is winter in Brazil, and July can be chilly.)

A financial disclaimer. Do not trade off this macro research. Soccer, or football as it is known outside of the States, is full of surprises. The model does not leave much room for upset victories, and they always occur during the World Cup. When Brazil and Croatia walk onto the field on June 12 for the opening match, it all starts from zero. It will be eleven against eleven, and whoever scores first gets the upper hand.